Ukrainian-born Swedish winger Dmytro Tymashov, 27, has signed a one-year contract with HC Sochi, shortly after Sochi acquired his KHL rights from SKA St. Petersburg in a multi-player trade on Thursday.

Several ex-NHLers have signed with KHL clubs in recent weeks, most recently Russian Nikita Zaitsev, but before that Canadians Dillon Dubé, Nathan Beaulieu and Dylan Sikura, American Jordan Gross and Slovak Adam Ružička. But a Ukrainian-born player signing in a league that has quite explicitly supported the Russian military since its invasion of Ukraine is rather surprising.

“I am half Russian and half Ukrainian. My mother is Ukrainian and my father is Russian. I can’t cry because I have Russian roots and want to see my family,” Tymashov is quoted in an interview with Swedish website HockeySverige.se. “My dad and all my siblings are also moving to Sochi to be close to me after all these years. My mother will of course also visit me there.” 

He also said, “I have always said that I will play in the KHL sooner or later because of my family, whom I have seldom met in my entire life.”

Tymashov was born in Kropyvnytskyi in central Ukraine but left the country with his mother at age seven and grew up in suburban Stockholm, Sweden, which is where he started playing hockey. He represented Sweden at the 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship and said in an interview during the tournament that he received his first pair of skates as a birthday present from his mother’s new husband.

At age 17, Tymashov left Sweden to play junior hockey for the Quebec Remparts, where he won the QMJHL rookie-of-the-year award, and he was drafted in the fifth round of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Tymashov played 45 NHL games with the Leafs, Detroit Red Wings and New York Islanders, scoring four goals and adding five assists, but spent most of his time between 2016 and 2021 in the AHL.

Since then, Tymashov has played two seasons in the SHL with Brynäs IF and then spent last season with HC Ajoie in Switzerland’s National League, where he recorded 20 points in 35 games.  

UPDATE: The quotes from Tymashov were discovered and added after the article's original publication.